Remote healthcare preferable for many patients

Telemedicine works well in both the operating room and the clinic. It makes health care safer, more equitable and more efficient. This is shown by video visits in outpatient care and other initiatives driven by the Center for Innovation along with clinical staff.

Care at a distance – Telemedicine

Care at a distance – Telemedicine – is one of the focus areas for the innovation work at Karolinska University Hospital. We develop solutions for care at a distance, together with external partners. Watch a video about telemedicine at Karolinska University Hospital:

Shorter waiting times for severe Parkinson's disease

Remote neurology consultations: Shorter waiting times to see specialists, no “unnecessary” referrals and timely advanced medical care. These are the results of video consultations between the patient’s local neurologist and the Parkinson's specialist at Karolinska University Hospital.

Reduced waiting time for specialist assessment – from 6 months to 1 week

Patients can remain at home while medications are adjusted

Home titration for Parkinson’s disease: Advanced treatment of Parkinson’s disease previously required patients to be hospitalized for several days in order to adjust their medication dose. Now this can be done using video communication and patients can remain at home with their families and continue working.

Hospitalization per patient reduced from 9 days to 3 days

Partners: Department of Neurology at Karolinska University Hospital, the university hospitals in Skåne, Linköping and Uppsala, as well as AbbVie and Atea.

Fewer hospital visits – better contact with healthcare

"Patients with multiple diagnoses do not always have the strength to seek care in the hospital. And we must find new ways to reach young people who are overweight. We know that they often do not feel well", Anna Hägg, dietician, Obesity Center.

Video visits in outpatient care: Video visits are highly beneficial for patients who need frequent contact with the healthcare system. Avoiding unnecessary trips to the hospital is particularly important for people with chronic diseases or disabilities.

More options for contact make the healthcare system more accessible and patients feel more secure. Video visits can also relieve the burden on the emergency room – there is no longer any need to go there as often.

The Center for Innovation team has focused on user-friendliness. And video visits have been surprisingly uncomplicated.

Video visits may actually provide a solution for some patients to get any care at all, as in the case of patients with multiple diagnoses who do not have the strength to get to the hospital. Another group is young people being treated for overweight.

“They may have difficulty combining school with regularly scheduled office visits. Many also feel uncomfortable about coming to an overweight clinic and fail to show for scheduled appointments,” says Anna Hägg, dietician at the Obesity Center, who has had positive experiences with contact with her patients by video.

Specialists can reach more patients

Surgeons guide procedures remotely: The Gastro Center at Karolinska is currently guiding – via video link – colleagues around the country who carry out ERCP-assisted surgery to operate gallstones, cirrhosis and cancer. This endoscopic surgical technique allows the surgeon to gain access through body orifices instead of incisions.

Karolinska University Hospital is home to some of Sweden’s leading endoscopists who can now share their knowledge with other surgeons. Patient safety increases while the risks of complications and re-operation decrease.

To reach even more patients, parallel guidance is now being implemented – an expert at Karolinska can guide three procedures. Simultaneously.

Curious about new solutions?

The Center for Innovation assists Karolinska’s services with technology and working methods that function in everyday clinical practice. We are also developing new remote care solutions along with external parties.

More information (downloads)

"Tomorrow's healthcare is being developed in close collaboration between industry and the clinics, researchers and patients at Karolinska. This leads to innovations that are required and demanded by the healthcare sector." About our Innovation Partnerships.